 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1056, 5 February 2024 |
Welcome to this year's 6th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Software development isn't always about adding new features and capabilities. Software developers can strive to all sorts of other goals, including efficiency, stability, security, and minimal resource consumption. This week we focus primarily on these other, perhaps less glamorous, areas of focus. We begin with an overview of wattOS, a small, Debian-based distribution which aims to be energy efficient and extend battery life. How well does wattOS perform? Jesse Smith runs wattOS on his laptop and reports on his findings in our Feature Story. In our News section we discuss Mint's developers working to iron out the stability issues with Wayland. Meanwhile HardenedBSD helps administrators lock down unknown USB devices, Gentoo unveils a new binary repository optimized for newer computers, and Linux distributions patch a serious security hole in the GNU C library. Plus we welcome back Damn Small Linux (DSL), a distribution which packs a lot of functionality into a small ISO. The DSL project has been dormant for over a decade, but is now testing a new, antiX-based platform. Are you a former DSL user? Let us know about your experiences with the mini distribution in our Opinion Poll. This week we also explore the speeds of various utilities for writing ISO files to a thumb drive and talk about why some tools can be faster than others. Plus we are pleased to share last week's releases with you and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
- Review: wattOS R13
- News: Linux Mint faces challenges with Wayland, HardenedBSD offers blocks against foreign USB devices, Damn Small Linux returns, Gentoo publishes x86-64-v3 repository, Linux distributions patch glibc security flaw
- Questions and answers: Differences in performance between ISO writing tools
- Released last week: OPNsense 24.1, UBports 20.04 OTA-4, KaOS 2024.01, EasyOS 5.7
- Torrent corner: KDE neon, Tails
- Upcoming releases: FreeBSD 13.3-BETA2
- Opinion poll: What do you think of Damn Small Linux?
- New distributions: SnowflakeOS, Arkane Linux, HeliumOS
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
wattOS R13
wattOS is a fast and lightweight desktop Linux distribution based on Debian. The distribution strives to be as efficient as possible so that it can be used on low-specification and recycled computers as well as laptops.
The current version of wattOS is available in a single edition for x86_64 computers and is based on Debian 12. Apart from the fact wattOS uses the Calamares system installer and runs on version 6.1 of the Linux kernel, the release announcement didn't offer a lot of details or mention many new features. The Gdebi utility is included to make it easier to install third-party Deb packages with a click, but otherwise it seems the latest version of wattOS is staying mostly the same as previous versions, just with an updated Debian base. I downloaded the project's ISO file which is 1.4GB in size.
Booting from the wattOS media brings up the LXDE interface. Icons on the desktop launch the PCManFM file manager and the distribution's system installer. A panel is placed across the bottom of the desktop. This thick panel holds the application menu, quick-launch buttons, virtual desktop switcher, task switcher, and system tray.
wattOS R13 -- Browsing the application menu
(full image size: 1.3MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The live environment offers no welcome window and no notifications. I found the classic desktop layout to be familiar and easy to navigate. LXDE is set up with a dark theme by default, though we can make adjustments to the desktop's look by using the settings modules presented in the Preferences section of the application menu.
Installing
As mentioned earlier, wattOS uses the Calamares graphical system installer. The installer begins by asking us to select our preferred language from a list. This first screen also displays buttons which offer to show us the distribution's release notes, support options, and known issues. Clicking these buttons accomplishes nothing - nothing happens, with no error or information shown. The following screens of the installer assist us in picking our time zone and keyboard layout.
When it comes to disk partitioning we are given a guided option which will set up an ext4 root filesystem and a large swap partition. The swap partition seems to be set to twice the amount of RAM on the system, which is an archaic approach and overkill on modern systems. The manual partitioning approach offers a friendly, point-and-click partition manager which supports GPT and MBR disk layouts. The final screen asks us to create a username and password combination for ourselves.
Calamares copies its files to our hard drive and then offers to restart the computer. When the distribution is powering down it shows us the wattOS logo and then appears to freeze. Though nothing is printed on the screen, I discovered the system was waiting for me to press Enter before it would complete the shutdown process.
Early impressions
My brand new copy of wattOS booted almost instantly to a graphical login screen. From there I could sign into the LXDE desktop. As with the live media, LXDE offers us no customization screen, no welcome window, and no first-run wizard. We are provided with a clean, minimal environment with a dark theme and left to explore as we wish. The desktop is unusually fast to respond (the term "snappy" comes to mind) and it is pleasantly empty of distractions.
One aspect of LXDE I wasn't thrilled with was the application menu didn't have a search feature. The menu isn't particularly full by default, but we may need to browse for a while to find specific items.
wattOS R13 -- Exploring the file system with PCManFM
(full image size: 654kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Hardware
I started exploring wattOS in a VirtualBox environment. The distribution ran quickly in the virtual machine, booting almost instantly and offering a highly responsive desktop. LXDE would not automatically resize to match VirtualBox's window dimensions, but there is a settings module included I could use to resize the desktop.
When I experimented with wattOS on my laptop the distribution properly detected and used all of my hardware. Wireless networking, media keys, and audio all worked out of the box. I was pleased to find wattOS could boot in UEFI and Legacy BIOS modes.
The distribution is medium-weight in memory, requiring about 570MB of RAM. This struck me as being unusually heavy for a system running LXDE (Lubuntu's last release featuring LXDE consumed about 200MB of RAM). The distribution took up about 4.6GB of disk space, not including the swap partition.
Applications
wattOS ships with a small collection of desktop software. We're treated to the Firefox web browser and Transmission bittorrent client. We're also given a PDF document viewer, the gThumb image viewer, and the PCManFM file manager. A graphical task manager and the Htop command line process monitor are included too. There are two text editors and a file archive manager. We're also given several Openbox/LXDE configuration tools which make adjusting the look and behaviour of the desktop fairly straight forward.
wattOS R13 -- Running the Firefox browser
(full image size: 833kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Exploring further we can find GNU command line utilities installed for us along with manual pages. The GNU Compiler Collection is installed and the distribution uses systemd. In the background wattOS uses version 6.1 of the Linux kernel.
Software management
The distribution ships with the Synaptic package manager (which can be found under the Preferences section of the application menu rather than the more commonly used System category). Synaptic is a classic, low-level package manager which can manage repositories, find packages, install, remove, and upgrade software. Synaptic isn't pretty, but it works and works quickly.
wattOS R13 -- Installing software with Synaptic
(full image size: 1.0MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
For people who prefer to use the command line we can also use the APT command line utilities to manage software. All packages appear to come from Debian's repositories. We can adjust which specific repositories we are accessing through Synaptic or using the Software and Updates utility - which is also in the Preferences section of the application menu.
wattOS does not enable Flatpak or Snap support by default, though these can be installed from Debian's repositories.
Power levels
Up to this point wattOS seemed like a pretty typical, lightweight, Debian-based distribution. The distribution had a few very minor issues early on (which I mentioned above), but nothing serious. On the other hand, wattOS also didn't offer me many features to draw me in. Up to this point it had felt like Debian with a faster system installer.
My main interest in trying wattOS was to see if the distribution really would offer better performance and power efficiency than most other distributions. In terms of offering a fast boot process and unusually snappy desktop, wattOS delivered very well. Starting up and shutting down happened almost instantly and the desktop worked unusually quickly.
In terms of power consumption I was also pleasantly surprised. I typically use MX Linux with most services and Conky disabled on my laptop when I'm not testing other distributions. Like wattOS R13, MX Linux is based on Debian 12, uses a dark theme, and doesn't run many services in the background. Apart from the fact MX uses the Xfce mid-weight desktop while wattOS uses the slightly lighter LXDE interface, the two projects are very closely related.
Despite being very siblings in the Debian family, both running light-ish desktops with dark themes, and few services and no widgets, the power consumption difference was immediately evident. MX Linux provides me with about 3.7 hours of battery power for writing and light web browsing. During my week with wattOS the same tasks could be performed for 7.5 hours, on average, before the battery ran out. In other words, wattOS consumed about half the power of a very closely related distribution running mostly the same software on the same hardware. I was pleasantly surprised by this extra power savings as it meant I could just about run the laptop all day off battery with wattOS if I wished.
Conclusions
wattOS isn't flashy, it isn't doing anything eye-catching, or innovative. It is, at it's core, a pleasantly boring distribution based on Debian Stable with an unusually small and conservative collection of applications. The distribution is minimal and provides just a handful of desktop programs to get us started. At first glance, it may not seem like there is much to draw in new users. However, I think that is the point of wattOS.
The distribution doesn't do much out of the box because it's trying not to strain the low-specification computer it is meant to power. It doesn't enable many services, visual effects, or features because it is striving to extend battery life. It's essentially what happens if someone installed Debian, plopped a minimal desktop environment on the system, and tried to squeeze as much energy efficiency out of the distribution as possible.
In short, wattOS succeeds, in my opinion, in its quest to extend battery life and provide a minimal distribution for older computers. It's not pretty, it's not flashy, it's not rich in features, but it is super fast, fairly light, and doubled my battery life.
* * * * *
Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an HP DY2048CA laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 512GB solid state drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Wireless network device: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 + BT Wireless network card
* * * * *
Visitor supplied rating
wattOS has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.9/10 from 19 review(s).
Have you used wattOS? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Linux Mint faces challenges with Wayland, HardenedBSD offers blocks against foreign USB devices, Damn Small Linux returns, Gentoo publishes x86-64-v3 repository, Linux distributions patch glibc security flaw
The Linux Mint team have published their monthly newsletter for January. The team talks about some bugs which have been fixed in the past month, along with changes to the project's Edge edition. The newsletter also talks about an issue some users have had when switching between the Cinnamon X11 and Wayland sessions: "It came to our attention that Wayland sessions in Linux Mint 21.3 could potentially affect X.Org sessions and triggered specific issues. Until these issues are fixed, we'd like to raise awareness on this and remind you that Wayland support in 21.3 is experimental. Although it is possible to switch from Wayland to X.Org with a simple logout, we recommend a reboot."
* * * * *
The HardenedBSD project has published its monthly newsletter for January and highlighted some key changes. One of the new features discussed is the ability to lock down new USB devices attached to a computer while it is running: "A new sysctl node is introduced that disables new USB device connections: hardening.pax.prohibit_new_usb. Possible values to set it to: 0 - disabled; 1 - enabled; 2 - enabled without possibility to disable without incurring a reboot. It would be cool to see a new option: 3 - enforce a USB device allow list. I would like to delegate that to anyone who wants to volunteer to do that work."
* * * * *
The Damn Small Linux project was considered a lightweight during its time. The project strove to provide a complete desktop environment while maintaining an ISO file of 50MB in size. After 2012 the project went dormant for over a decade, but Damn Small Linux (DSL) has returned and its developer is working on creating a distribution which fits on a single CD. "The New DSL 2024 has been reborn as a compact Linux distribution tailored for low-spec x86 computers. It packs a lot of applications into a small package. All the applications are chosen for their functionality, small size, and low dependencies. DSL 2024 also has many text-based applications that make it handy to use in a term window or TTY. DSL 2024 currently only ships with two window managers: Fluxbox and JWM. Both are lightweight, fairly intuitive, and easy to use." The resurrected DSL project is based on antiX and is still in its early (alpha) stages of development.
* * * * *
Back in December we reported on the Gentoo project, famous for its source-based approach to software management, was providing full binary package repositories. The project has expanding on its offering, now publishing binary packages for more optimized architectures: "End of December 2023 we already made our official announcement of binary Gentoo package hosting. The initial package set for amd64 was and is base-line x86-64, i.e., it should work on any 64bit Intel or AMD machine. Now, we are happy to announce that there is also a separate package set using the extended x86-64-v3 ISA (i.e., microarchitecture level) available for the same software. If your hardware supports it, use it and enjoy the speed-up!" Gentoo's announcement includes a guide for checking to see if a computer supports x86-64-v3 and how to enable the new repository.
* * * * *
A significant security flaw was found in the GNU C library (glibc) which is used by most Linux distributions. This issue can allow local users to elevate their access to gain root capabilities, giving the user (or application) administrative access. "A high severity vulnerability has been uncovered in the GNU C Library (glibc) that could allow local attackers to gain full root privileges on multiple Linux distributions. Disclosed as CVE-2023-6246, the issue is a heap-based buffer overflow in glibc's __vsyslog_internal() function, called by the commonly used syslog() and vsyslog() functions for logging messages. The flaw was introduced accidentally in glibc version 2.37 released in August 2022 and later backported to version 2.36.
According to researchers at Qualys who discovered the bug, it poses a major threat as it can enable unprivileged users to escalate privileges to root through crafted inputs to applications using the affected logging functions. While specific conditions are needed to exploit it, the impact is magnified due to glibc's widespread use." Mainstream Linux distributions have already published fixes and security announcements. The Debian Security mailing list provides additional details.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Differences in performance between ISO writing tools
Feel-the-need-for-speed asks: Can you explain what is going on here? When I write an ISO to my thumb drive the dd command, which most tutorials recommend, it takes ten times longer to complete than using UNetbootin. I tried other command line tools like you suggested and they all are painfully slow next to UNetbootin. Why is the GUI tool so much faster than all the command line tools?
DistroWatch answers: When copying a file, or a group of files, from one location on a filesystem to another location on the same filesystem there are all sorts of reasons why one copy utility might perform better than another. The type of filesystem, the underlying type of disk(s), the method the copy utility uses, the availability of copy-on-write shortcuts, whether the utility uses parallel or serial copying, and the amount of memory free for caching files all play significant roles.
When copying a file, such as an ISO, from your hard drive to a thumb drive, there are a whole new set of variables. Different thumb drives have different write speeds, as do USB ports (USB 2 vs USB 3 can make a big difference). Whether the utility performs a write sync and waits for data to finish writing or simply dumps its data into a buffer and leaves synchronizing up to the operating system is also a factor. Whether the source file is cached in memory or being read from a spinning disk might play a factor, especially if the operating system is already performing other disk-related tasks.
In short, there are easily a dozen variables which can either change the speed of a file being written to a thumb drive or (the case of buffered data) change the appearance of how quickly a file is written to an external drive.
While I was typing this reply, I decided to run a series of demonstrations. The following commands were all timed. They all ran on the same distribution on the same computer writing the same file to the same USB thumb drive plugged into the same port. This is as similar and boring as it gets when testing the process of writing an ISO file to an external drive. Yet, note how much of a difference using different commands (or the same command with different parameters) makes:
# time dd if=mytest.iso of=/dev/sdb status=progress
real 0m50.868s
# time dd if=mytest.iso of=dev/sdb bs=1000000
real 0m20.608s
# time cat mytest.iso > /dev/sdb
real 0m24.116s
# time cp mytest.iso /dev/sdb
real 0m17.465s
In the above test runs we see the time it takes to write the same file to an external drive, with the duration of each test measured in seconds. The dd command, with progress information printed to the screen and a default block size, takes almost exactly three times longer than the cp command and almost exactly twice as long as the cat command. Running dd without progress information and increasing the block size of transfers from 512 bytes to 1,000,000 bytes cuts the transfer time by more than half. But even with those improvements, it's still slower than the plain cp command without optimizations, and barely faster than doing a plain file dump with cat.
Anyway, the point of this little experiment is: even with virtually every variable controlled (hardware, ports, distribution, source file size, caching, and destination device) there can still be a huge difference in write speeds to a thumb drive when either using different tools or different parameters passed to the same tool.
In short, the UNetbootin graphical utility is probably writing data to your thumb drive in a similar manner as cp, possibly by reading the entire source file into memory at once, dumping it out to the thumb drive in one big write push, and maybe not forcing a data sync on the write buffers before reporting it is finished. (I'm taking a wild guess, I haven't looked at the source code of UNetbootin.) Meanwhile, your dd command is reading, transferring, and writing 512 bytes at a time which involves many more steps.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
OPNsense 24.1
OPNsense is a FreeBSD-based specialist operating system designed for firewalls and routers. The project's latest release, OPNsense 24.1 "Savvy Shark" includes a number of upgrades and fiewall improvements, along with the OpenSSL 3. "For more than 9 years now, OPNsense is driving innovation through modularising and hardening the open-source firewall, with simple and reliable firmware upgrades, multi-language support, fast adoption of upstream software updates as well as clear and stable 2-Clause BSD licensing. 24.1, nicknamed 'Savvy Shark', features ports-based OpenSSL 3, Suricata 7, several MVC/API conversions, a new neighbor configuration feature for ARP/NDP, core inclusion of the os-firewall and os-wireguard plugins, CARP VHID tracking for OpenVPN and WireGuard, functional Kea DHCPv4 server with HA support plus much more. Here are the full patch notes against 23.7.12: system - prevent activating shell for non-admins; add OCSP trust extensions and improved authorities implementation; migrate single gateway configuration to MVC/API; use new backend streaming functionality in the log viewer; limit file system /conf/config.xml and backups access to administrators...." A change log and additional details can be found in the release announcement.
OPNsense 24.1 -- Control interface and mascot
(full image size: 904kB, resolution: 1200x682 pixels)
UBports 20.04 OTA-4
The UBports team have announced a new update to the project's 20.04 series for mobile devices. The new update, 20.04 OTA-4 adjusts notification behaviour, makes it possible to assign each contact their own ringtone, and makes it easier to switch themes: "We have always had a system-wide dark mode in the system. However, in the past, you had to use a third-party app to access the necessary switch. In this OTA, we've added a new toggle switch in the System Settings to allow you to change it without the need of an additional app. To access it, go to System Settings > Background & Appearance. For now, it will affect applications only, and not the other system components (such as notifications). Also, you'll have to restart the applications for the change to take effect. In the future, we plan to extend this system to also affect system components, and to have the change applied immediately too." Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement.
SysLinuxOS 12.3
Franco Conidi has announced the release of SysLinuxOS 12.3, an updated version of the project's Debian-based distribution designed primarily for system integrators and administrators. This version is based on Debian 12 and comes with a long-term supported 6.5 version of the Linux kernel. "SysLinuxOS is updated to version 12.3. In this version, numerous bugs have been fixed and it also brings with it several improvements to make it much more intuitive and easy to use. Many changes are under the hood, while others are purely aesthetic, and they improve the menu and icons in both GNOME and MATE desktop environments. SysLinuxOS is a distribution for system integrators and network administrators, it must be chameleonic and therefore have tools that help to interface in a mixed Windows/Linux environment. In this update, I have excluded two or three programs in favor of others that I believe are more useful for greater interoperability. I have therefore added WoeUSB, Teams for Linux, Webex, Github Desktop, Wiregui, Timeshift. As you can easily imagine, there is a lot of work behind this, so I apologize in advance if you encounter any small problems." See the release announcement, the release notes and the changelog for more details.
KaOS 2024.01
Version 2024.01 of KaOS, an independently-developed Linux distribution focused on Qt/KDE toolkit and desktop, has been released. This is the project's first stable release that incorporates KDE's upcoming Plasma 6 release, currently in the release candidate 2 stage. "It is a great pleasure to present to you the January release of a new stable ISO image. This release marks the end of Plasma 5 as the default Desktop Environment for KaOS. Almost fifteen months ago work started to fully migrate to a Frameworks 6, Plasma 6-based distribution, and with the release of Plasma 6 release candidate 2, this migration is now deemed ready to bring a better user experience than Plasma 5. From the onset of this migration, there was never a plan to mix the two environments. What you will see on this ISO is a pure Plasma 6-based environment. KaOS though has been shipping all ported applications from their Frameworks 6 branch in the many snapshot ISOs it has released to get ready for this migration. Just about all applications that users have become used to seeing in a Frameworks 5 / Plasma 5 version are available as a Frameworks 6 / Plasma 6 port." Read the complete release announcement for further information and screenshots.
KaOS 2024.01 -- Running the KDE Plasma 6 desktop
(full image size: 477kB, resolution: 1900x1068 pixels)
EasyOS 5.7
EasyOS is an experimental Linux distribution which uses many of the technologies and package formats pioneered by Puppy Linux. The distribution features custom container technology called Easy Containers which can run applications or the entire desktop environment in a container. The project's latest release, EasyOS 5.7, introduces new virtual machine technologies, replaced sudo with sudo-sh, and added the ability to install packages from Void's repositories. The release announcement and release notes list the new changes: "New applications KeePassXC, Symphytum, Flowblade, p7zip. More translations, in particular Turkish and Russian. Improved support for VMs, with AQEMU and QtEmu. Sudo replaced with sudo-sh. Login and Security Manager overhauled. Change folder hierachy to usr-merge, including /usr/sbin. PKGget support to install Void .xbps packages. Many system-level fixes, including network and Samba. Many app versions bumped, including Chromium, Htop, Limine, Global-IP-TV-Panel. NVIDIA driver SFSs. Install latest Chrome, Vivaldi and Firefox in menu. Kernel now 5.15.148. Sync'ed with OpenEmbedded/Yocto release 4.0.14."
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 2,956
- Total data uploaded: 44.0TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
What do you think of Damn Small Linux?
This week we shared the news that Damn Small Linux (also known as DSL) has returned from a long hibernation. The project was once well known for providing sub-50MB live media and packing a lot of functionality into a small download. Have you used DSL in the past? Let us know what you think about the mini distro.
You can see the results of our previous poll on distributions with support schedules in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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What do you think of DSL?
| I have used it before and liked it: | 541 (39%) |
| I have used it before and did not like it: | 96 (7%) |
| I have not used it before but plan to try the new version: | 208 (15%) |
| I have not used it before and do not plan to try the new version: | 556 (40%) |
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|
| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- SnowflakeOS. SnowflakeOS is a NixOS-based Linux distribution focused on beginner friendliness and ease of use.
- Arkane Linux. Arkane Linux is an opinionated, immutable, atomic, multi-root Arch-based distribution which aims to provide a GNOME-centered experienced with minimal yet full featured and sensible non-intrusive defaults.
- HeliumOS. The goal of HeliumOS is to provide a reliable and user-friendly system using Btrfs snapshots, a stable Debian base, and a small selection of useful applications. Flatpak support is enabled out of the box.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 12 February 2024. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Weekly Archive and Article Search pages. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
Zopix
Zopix was a Linux distribution derived from Knoppix. It was a live CD, a ready-to-use Zope working environment consisting of open-source and free software distributed under GPL.
Status: Discontinued
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| Tips, Tricks, Q&As | | Questions and answers: Rolling versus time-based release model |
| Tips and tricks: (Xfce) interface woes |
| Tips and tricks: Find common words in text, find high memory processs, cd short-cuts, pushd & popd, record desktop |
| Questions and answers: Using Flatpak vs Snap |
| Myths and misunderstandings: ZFS |
| Tips and tricks: Running the Linux-libre kernel |
| Tips and tricks: Basename, for loop, dirname, aliases, bash history, xsel clipboard |
| Questions and answers: Quick command line and shell script questions |
| Questions and answers: Linux frustrations |
| More Tips & Tricks and Questions & Answers |
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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0x969CD4E778C7b6549A2B00e34114e0168c86A542 
